Pieces From The Early 1900's

It seems that my memory was slightly faulty; I believed myself to have four pieces from the early 1900's, when in fact, I have only two. Two of the four turned out to be from the 1880's. Of the two that were dated in the 1900's, only one was before 1910, the other was dated 1914.

At any rate, here are the two pieces:

THE POETICAL WORKS OF JOHN DRYDEN, CAMBRIDGE EDITION, 1909:

Along with pictures of its frontispiece, showing the slip-cover in either position:

ENGLISH DRAMA OF THE RESTORATION AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURY (1642-1780), 1914:

Since the second piece covers The Restoration in general, materials on Dryden are but one aspect of the book; in addition, as a sort of bonus, there are materials on Shadwell and Congreve as well. (Shadwell was a rival of Dryden's, and Congreve's writing was heavily influenced by Dryden; in addition, Congreve was a good friend of Dryden's cousin, Jonathan Swift.) Thus, this book is especially useful to me.

Both books are in excellent and usable condition, having obviously been well-cared-for by their previous owners.

It is always interesting to read old textbooks, which is what both of these pieces are. Literary criticism goes through life cycles and is greatly affected by the prevailing schools of thought of the particular era in which it is written, thus it is often helpful, in the quest to gain insight into modern critical modalities, to examine the critical modalities of ages past.

Until the next post, I wish you well.